1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for the cooking of foodstuffs, and more particularly to a machine for the rapid and automatic cooking of pasta.
2. Prior Art
Known machines of this type comprise an initial cooking chamber in which the pasta placed therein is processed with water or hot pressurized steam, and a second chamber in which the pasta product is placed after completion of the first cooking stage. Most of these machines are complicated affairs, very expensive to manufacture, and even more costly to maintain. With few exceptions, their performance is unpredictable and leaves a great deal to be desired. By and large, they are too undependable and impracticable for commercial use.
A particularly troublesome source of difficulty with virtually all of the prior art automatic pasta cooking machines is the transfer of the partially processed product from the first to the second chamber. This is generally accomplished either by using a stream of steam or water to flush the product from the first chamber into the second chamber, or by effectively causing a drop in pressure between the first and second chambers, thereby forcibly expelling the product from the first chamber into the second chamber.
In devices of the first type, flushing the soft, partially cooked pasta from the first to the second chamber by means of a jet of steam or water requires a substantial quantity of steam or pre-heated water, most of which is wasted, and tends to damage the product and cause it to stick to the chamber walls. Reducing the force of the jet or stream to protect the product results in some of the product not being transferred and remaining in the first chamber or in the passageway between the two chambers. Devices of the second type, while partially recovering the steam or water extracted from the first chamber, sometimes fail to completely transfer the product into the second chamber because it tends to adhere to the bottom and sides of the first chamber and the intervening passageway.
An object of the present invention is to provide a machine for the rapid and automatic cooking of pasta which avoids these and other deficiencies and problems posed by known machines.
Another object is to provide a machine of this type which can be fabricated at relatively low cost and which requires a minimum of maintenance.
Another object is to provide a machine which is dependable and practicable for commercial use in the fast-food industry.
Still another object is to provide an automatic cooking machine for such foodstuffs as pasta, wherein the cooking is carried out in at least two stages in separate cooking chambers, using water superheated in a boiler contained within the machine.
A further object is to provide a machine wherein for ease of manufacture and maintenance the boiler and at least one of the cooking chambers are formed as a monolithic unit.
Yet another object is to provide such a machine in which the several cooking chambers are aligned vertically, thereby allowing the product being processed to move from chamber to chamber successively solely under the influence of gravity.
A still further object is to provide an automatic cooking machine of the type described which is simple to operate and requires little, if any, human skill, training, or intervention to produce the desired product reliably and repeatably.